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Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady: 06/30/16

Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady by L.A. Meyer is the second of the Bloody Jack series. Jacky, found to be female, has been removed from her ship and put in the charge of a finishing school in Boston.

Jacky's situation, save for her being an orphan of unknown (to the people who put her there) class and origin, is very much like Princess Pony Head's enforced enrollment at St. Olga's Reform School ("St Olga's School for Wayward Princesses," season one of Star vs the Forces of Evil) Except that's it set in Colonial Massachusetts, a very Puritan, and thus, very conservative place.

Marco and Star at St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses

Like the first book, it has some pacing issues. It seems too much time is spent setting up the situation before getting to the meat and potatoes of the plot. Yes, Jacky's now in an awful reform school and yes she'll never fit in. Sure, she's better suited as one of the staff than one of the students, but even that's not the point of the book.

The really story, which takes itself forever to unravel, is three fold. One: the minister who is the patron of the school is a dangerous pervert. Two: one of the servant girls at the school was raped and murdered. Three: The minister has his eyes on Jacky and one of them will end up dead. Given that there are twelve books so far in the series, you can guess who wins.

So the main point here to the book, I guess, is how much it sucked to be a woman in Puritan society. It's an extended shore leave to demonstrate why Jacky loves the sea so much and why she's more comfortable dressing as a man.